Tales of a Liberated Earth: All Men Created Equal
Updated: Nov 6, 2022
We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal.
That was tattooed on his left arm, since David was a boy in Cumberland. He didn’t cry. Mom told him not to let outsiders see weakness. Otherwise, the cannibals would get him in the night. That was how his father died.
We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal.
David was ten when heard his father scream as the cannibals ate him, slowly and with precision. The blood never came out of the walls. They had nowhere else to go. There was a table set up, outside the prison. The Human Soldiers of Earth offered a way out of poverty and the Lower Caste, as long as you acknowledged your sin of being a human and asked for forgiveness of your individuality. To be an individual was to stand against the Empire. David understood that the acknowledgement of sin was a submission to authority. A way to control the Lower Caste. Those in power wanted to define who you were, based on their own terms. That kept them in charge, while all you had was your rage. Men stood in line for hours, offering their life to the Empire in exchange for a stable food source. The same men that spoke of freedom and fraternity traded their morals for a burger and a beer. David couldn’t hate himself enough to sell his soul like that. But he also didn’t want to spend his life suffocating in the coal mines. So, there was another table that David found. Hidden in a bombed-out factory. A shorter line. Angrier men. A recruiting Sergeant for the Rough Riders that promised justice. A piece of paper for David to sign.
We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal.
His recruiting Sergeant taught him how to make bombs. How to kill quietly. To believe in a country that no longer existed. To use the rifle that felt heavy in his hands. The concrete wall of the Cincinnati school house seemed incomplete. The windows far too open. That was how snipers got you. The Human Soldiers of Earth were coming. The sky would be full of the drop ships soon. The ground covered in their fire. No going home.
We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal.